Organizing Family Photos
Organizing family photos does not have to be an arduous task as long as you ask yourself these key questions.
What is your ultimate goal with organizing family photos?
Who would like to inherit all your family photos?
Would you like a family photo album for each family member or just one communal album?
Have you asked your family members if they would like a family photo album or is this something that you think they would like?
Do you make a hard copy or do you put each family member’s photos on a disk?
Do you organize your album by event or chronological?
Please ask yourself these questions and get clear on your outcome before starting the project.
The reason why I am getting you to really analyze these questions is because putting together family photo albums can be tricky. The upside is it can also be loads of fun and very rewarding.
I am going to assume you want to put together a family photo album for each family member. I’ll also assume that your pictures are in hard copy format not digital.
Check out this short video on Organizing Family Photos:
Use these top 5 Getting It Together tips to move forward with organizing family photos.
Let’s say you have 2 children. One we will call Tim and the other Sue.
Tip#1: Take a big white envelope and label it TIM. Take another big white envelope and label it SUE.
Tip#2: Take one small pile, small box or one old photo album. Divide the pictures between each big white envelope. Do not worry about anything else at this point. Just the sorting and dividing of prints between the 2 envelopes. If both children are in one picture you could scan it and put the photo in each envelope.
Tip#3: Take each envelope and do a ruthless purge. Toss any photos that are out of focus. Toss any where the eyes are closed or beat red. Toss any photos in which you have no memory of taking it, do not know where it was taken and or do not know who else is in the photos.
Tip#4: Next take your envelope of pictures and sort them by date or by events. For example you could put all birthday pictures together. Then all Christmas pictures together, etc. I find this to be far more effective than trying to do an album by date.
Tip#5: Put together the album. You may choose to write a little story on each page.
Once you have completed the 2 albums watch with delight as your grown children open them and devour the pages. I am sure they will be thrilled.
Still feeling a little overwhelmed by all the photos in your home. Call me for a FREE 30 minute phone consultation. We can discuss your personal needs. I’ll give you some tips and encouragement to help you move forward with this project.
Did this video and article help you with moving forward? If so, please leave a comment in the comment box below and please share the love by sharing this blog post with your family, friends and social media peeps. Thank you. 🙂
Tip#1: Volume. I hear of people that go on a trip and take 4000 photos.WOW! That is a lot of photos to try and manage. Even more to look at and even more to organize. Be mindful of the number of pictures you take. How many photos do you need of the Pyramids? I know it is easy to get caught up in the excitement of being in a country and wanting to capture all of the fun times there.
This is shocking…59% of people check their emails from the bathroom!! Is this the reason so many phones end up in the toilet? There is nothing that cannot wait until you have had a few minutes of private time.
51% of people admit social media at work hurts their productivity. What about the other 49%? I guess they are not admitting it! Social media has its’ time and place. What I have found about social media is that it is so easy to get distracted and start web surfing without that being your intention. Before you know it 2 hours have gone. Never to been seen again.
Long before you head out to the store you will want to do all of the purging, downsizing, sorting, tossing and de-cluttering. Once you have finished all of that you can start to think of products you will need to store your belongings in.
When asked what you would grab if your house was on fire most people say “photos.” With this being the case, why is it that most people have photos all over their homes? In boxes, in the original developers envelopes, in piles, on a memory stick and in no order? Photos, photos and more photos.
Tip#2: Categorize.
